My name is Dr. Ruben Flor. I grew up thinking that I was serving God. I went to church regularly as a child and tried doing the best I knew to deserve heaven. Filipinos are taught to believe that there is heaven and hell. I believed that heaven is a place for good people only. I strived hard to be an excellent person. I went to the Catholic church in our place because it was what everybody was doing. It was the only church in town. Heaven to me was something that needs to be worked for. I had no idea about the Bible. I did everything I was told to be a good person. But I felt that there was something missing. Although I believed that I was a good person, I felt far from God. As years went by, I wanted to follow God but felt that He was far away. I felt that there was something wrong but I have no idea what it was. I followed the church rituals and attended mass regularly. But the more I did, the more void I felt inside.

God’s message to me came when my father came to know the Lord. He explained to us the Good News about Christ’s purpose on earth. Everything that I knew was shaken. My father then brought us to a small Christian gathering. Through regular Bible studies, I found the real hope. I understood my sinful condition and I understood how Christ rescued me from death. My spiritual journey taught me God’s precious grace. I came to know that the only way to heaven was through the Lord Jesus Christ who died for my sins. I placed my trust in Him and I understood that I was rescued from my sins by God’s grace. At 14 years old, God gave me a new life when I accepted Him as my Savior and Lord. God’s words spoke to me in Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I felt so happy about my Savior. He gave me the right direction through His word, the Bible which I started reading with so much excitement in my heart. I followed Him because I learned to love Him. My confidence became His word. As it is written in Titus 3:5, ”Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Amen.

As I grew in faith, the Lord put a burden in my heart to serve Him. When I was in college, I trained under a man who had a deep love and passion for souls. I realized my purpose and that helped me develop my early ministry skills. I was given the privilege of organizing and leading our first Christian school organization while still in college. During the summer, I volunteered in medical missions. There, I saw the need of many people who were hopelessly lost. They needed Christ. I joined more medical missions whenever I could. I resolved to become a missionary if I become a doctor.

In medical school, I continued to reach the lost for Christ. My weekend ministry was to pastor a small congregation and conduct evangelistic activities. I carried this ministry over into my professional medical practice where I became involved in more church planting programs and extensive medical missions around the Philippines and the Southeast Asian countries. As "tent maker" missionaries, my wife and I used our profession to support our ministry for many years. God has been good to me and He has been faithfully allowing us to reach where the Gospel is needed.

My wife and I have been medical professionals since 1993. Right after our wedding, we went to the mountains in Northern Luzon, Philippines where we became involved in church planting, campus ministry, and village evangelistic free medical clinics during weekends. We were able to help build 7 church outreaches in the mountains of Northern Luzon. The burden of the unreached people groups (UPG’s), lack of primary health care and poverty in the region of southeast Asia which is also the least evangelized region gripped our hearts! The call to full-time ministry was not an easy move as medical professionals but the Lord has given us peace as we followed His call.

We started to serve full-time as missionaries for Independent Baptist Church in the Philippines in 2006. The challenge was to plant churches with the network of other churches around the country and Asia. Since then, we were able to conduct 35 medical missions per year across the Philippine archipelago and was able to help in the relief and medical missions in areas of Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka and Nepal.